ey neither saw nor heard me. I was
therefore enabled to catch the following sentences, which struck me as
of some moment. The first was uttered by her, and in very pleading
tones:

"A week--I only ask a week. Then perhaps I can give you an answer which
will satisfy you."

His reply, in manner if not in matter, proclaimed him the lover of whom
I had so lately heard.

"I cannot, dear girl; indeed, I cannot. My whole future depends upon my
immediately making the move in which I have asked you to join me. If I
wait a week, my opportunity will be gone, Lucetta. You know me and you
know how I love you. Then come----"

A rude hand on my shoulder distracted my attention. William stood
lowering behind me and, as I turned, whispered in my ear:

"You must come round the other way. Lucetta is so touchy, the sight of
you will drive every sensible idea out of her head."

His blundering whisper did what my presence and by no means light
footsteps had failed to do. With a start Lucetta turned and, meeting my
eye, drew back in visible confusion. The young man followed her hastily.

"Is it good-by, Lucetta?" he pleaded, with a fine, manly ignoring of our
presence that roused my admiration.

She did not answer. Her look was enough. William, seeing it, turned
furious at once, and, bounding by me, faced the young man with an oath.

"You're a fool to take no from a silly chit like that," he vociferated.
"If I loved a girl as you say you love Lucetta, I'd have her if I had to
carry her away by force. She'd stop screaming before she was well out of
the lane. I know women. While you listen to them they'll talk and talk;
but once let a man take matters into his own hands and--" A snap of his
fingers finished the sentence. I thought the fellow brutal, but scarcely
so stupid as I had heretofore considered him.

His words, however, might just as well have been uttered into empty air.
The young man he so violently addressed appeared hardly to have heard
him, and as for Lucetta, she was so nearly insensible from misery that
she had sufficient ado to keep herself from falling at her lover's feet.

"Lucetta, Lucetta, is it then good-by? You will not go with me?"

"I cannot. William, here, knows that I cannot. I must wait till----"

But here her brother seized her so violently by the wrist that she
stopped from sheer pain, I fear. However that was, she turned pale as
death under his clutch, and, when he tried to utter some hot, passionate